Lawana Hughes, right, poses for a portrait with her children, Marcus and Alex, from right, in their home in Alameda, Calif. on Monday, Dec. 21, 2009. Marcus, 3, had open heart surgery to close a hole last month, and the Season of Sharing fund helped pay the family's rent while Lawana was on leave from FedEx.

It wasn't going away, and the single mom thought a trip to Kaiser was in order, just to have 2-year-old Marcus checked out.

The routine doctor's office visit was anything but.

With a stethoscope to the toddler's chest, the doctor heard something more than a bad cough. Marcus' heart didn't sound right.

At a cardiologist's office a few weeks later, Hughes watched the specialist closely as he examined her son. And then she started getting scared.

"Why is he listening to him for so long?" Hughes remembers thinking. "It seemed like 30 minutes."

The next day, the doctor called.

"Your son has a hole in his heart," he told Hughes.

The diagnosis in August confirmed that Marcus had a hole in the upper left chamber of his heart. The right side was doing the heavy lifting to compensate.

As scary as the diagnosis was, the Alameda resident also worried about supporting her son and 15-year-old daughter during the required surgery and two-month recovery.

A FedEx sorter for 11 years, Hughes needed to take time off, and while her job would be secure, the absence would be unpaid.

"I had rent to pay," she said, and she had already used her vacation for the year and had essentially no savings.

"It was hard for me to just go ask someone, 'Hey, can you help me pay my rent?' "

But at Echo Housing in Hayward, Hughes found that help.

There Shelia Brunson, a direct services specialist, advised Hughes of her short-term options, including state disability assistance and other resources. But in the meantime, the Season of Sharing fund bridged the gap by paying her rent.

"It's a good story because she's a hardworking person, she's a single mom," Brunson said, adding that Hughes was overwhelmed by the help.

Brunson said Hughes went to Toys for Tots so she could provide Christmas gifts for her children, but ultimately left empty-handed.

"She said she felt there were people there who were way worse off than she is, so she didn't take anything," Brunson said.

On Nov. 16, just after his third birthday, Marcus was wheeled into a UCSF operating room for the nearly five-hour surgery.

The procedure involved rerouting veins and placing a Gore-Tex patch over the hole, Hughes said.

Now, a month later, Marcus is a typical, happy toddler, save the scar running from his belly to his collarbone.

Health benefits covered by her employer paid all but $500 of the $100,000 surgery, Hughes said, adding that she plans to return to work in January.

"Who prepares for this?" she said of the experience. "You never know what can happen until you're in that position."

About the fund

Donations to The Chronicle's Season of Sharing fund help thousands of people in the Bay Area throughout the year. Assistance is in the form of grants paid directly to the supplier, such as a landlord. Individuals cannot receive direct grants. For more information, visit www.seasonofsharing.org.